Michael Horton has written
an excellent opinion piece in Christianity Today. He talks about President Trump’s announcement
to an evangelical gathering at the White House recently in which the President
said this regarding the upcoming election.
Evangelicals, he said,
were “one election away from losing everything.”
I commend Mr. Horton’s
comments which follow to you. I thought
about condensing his thoughts; however, it all needs to be said. The words speak for themselves. I can add no more.
As evangelicals, we would do
well to correct the president on this point. If an election can cause us to lose everything,
what is it exactly that we have in the first place?
Surely we can be grateful
for any public servant who upholds the First Amendment. And we should applaud fellow believers who ply
their education and experience as lawyers to defend religious freedom (as long
as they don’t seek to privilege Christianity legally above other religions).
However, the church does not
preach the gospel at the pleasure of any administration or decline to preach it
at another administration’s displeasure. We preach at Christ’s pleasure. And we don’t
make his policies but communicate them. It’s
not when we’re fed to lions that we lose everything; it’s when we preach
another gospel. “What good will it be
for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?” (Matt. 16:26).
And yet, swinging from
triumphalism to seething despair, many pastors are conveying to the wider,
watching public a faith in political power that stands in sharp opposition to
everything we say we believe in. To many of our neighbors, the court chaplains
appear more like jesters.
Something tremendous is at
stake here: whether evangelical Christians place their faith more in Caesar and
his kingdom than in Christ and his reign. On that one, we do have everything to
lose—this November and every other election cycle. When we seek special
political favors for the church, we communicate to the masses that Christ’s
kingdom is just another demographic in the US electorate.
Let’s face it. Liberal and
conservative, Catholic and Protestant, have courted political power and happily
allowed themselves to be used by it. This always happens when the church
confuses the kingdom of Christ with the kingdoms of this present age. Jesus
came not to jump-start the theocracy in Israel, much less to be the founding
father of any other nation. Even during his ministry, two disciples—James and
John—wanted to call down judgment on a village that rejected their message, but
“Jesus turned to them and rebuked them” (Luke 9:54–55). He is not a mascot for
a voting bloc but the savior of the world. He came to forgive sins and bring
everlasting life, to die and rise again so that through faith in him we too can
share in his new creation.
